14 HISTORY OF 



and become longer than the body. In short, it 

 becomes a large and beautiful fly of the libellula 

 kind, with a long slender body of a brown colour, 

 a small head with large bright eyes, long slender 

 legs, and four large transparent reticulated wings. 

 The rest of its habits resemble that insect whose 

 form it bears, except that, instead of dropping 

 its eggs in the water, it deposits them in sand, 

 where they are soon hatched into that rapacious 

 insect so justly admired for its method of catch- 

 ing its prey. 



CHAPTER IV. 



OF THE GRASSHOPPER, THE LOCUST, THE CICADA, 

 THE CRICKET, AND THE MOLE-CRICKET. 



BELONGING to the second order of insects, we find 

 a tribe of little animals, which, though differing 

 in size and colour, strongly resemble each other 

 in figure, appetites, nature, and transformation. 

 But though they all appear of one family, yet 

 men have been taught to hold them in different 

 estimation ; for while some of this tribe amuse 

 him with their chirpings, and banish solitude from 

 the fields, others come in swarms, eat up every 

 thing that is green, and in a single night convert 

 the most delightful landscape into a dreary waste. 

 However, if these animals be separately consider- 

 ed, the devouring locust is not in the least more 

 mischievous than the musical grasshopper; the 



